Last of the squatters quietly leave ‘embassy’

A man is arrested outside the Parkdale duplex at the centre of a legal battle involving the Freeman-On-The-Land movement on Friday.

Photograph by: Gavin Young
, Calgary Herald

A two-year standoff in a north Calgary duplex ended peacefully Friday night when the last four occupants claiming the apartment as their embassy drove off into the night.

The three-car convoy left the Parkdale property just after 8:30 p.m. under police supervision, making good on their promise to leave before a midnight eviction deadline.

“We are leaving in peace,” a man from the house wearing a purple shirt, who didn’t identify himself, said earlier Friday.

“We didn’t realize that all this was this way. I regret I wasn’t informed before that anything was going down this way.”

A friend of the squatters assisted police in convincing them to leave and later turned himself in for outstanding warrants not related to the high-profile duplex occupation, said duty inspector Guy Baker.

The man, who police later identified as Michael Shane Hunt, 40, of Calgary, was cuffed, searched and loaded into a police cruiser before he was taken away. Hunt was wanted for obstruction and impersonating a police officer, among other charges.

After the squatters cleared out, police said their role was to ensure that the apartment remained secure.

Early Friday morning, Calgary police arrested Freeman-on-the-Land Mario Antonacci, also known as Andreas Pirelli, who had refused to pay full rent and leave the Parkdale duplex.

The group of squatters also took up residence and declared the rental duplex their own “embassy.”

The man wearing the purple shirt, who declared himself a member of the “Deneza Country,” had initially told the Herald the group planned to stay put.

“I’m going to stay here for now. We’re staying by international law that all lands are Indian lands,” he said, later deciding that the group would leave.

Antonacci was arrested on a Canada-wide warrant without incident and remains in police custody.

Arrangements were made to transport him to Montreal within the next six days to face aggravated assault charges against a former landlord.

Duplex owner Rebekah Caverhill had tried to evict Antonacci for the past two years, but never had a formal rental contract.

When Antonacci changed the locks and declared her Calgary property his own, she was horrified to learn he had taken over the entire space, painting the floor and bedroom black.

The messy suite also sported a boardroom table with chairs in the basement, where Caverhill said he was holding civil disobedience classes.

“I’m relieved,” she told the Herald on Friday morning.

Now, she says while she’s grateful police have removed Antonacci from her property, she fears she may be facing costs to repair the duplex.

“That’s what scares me, I’ve got a lot of expenses,” she said from her Sylvan Lake area home.

It all began for Caverhill two years ago when a friend recommended she take Antonacci as a tenant in the basement below her own living quarters. Happy to have a handyman to spruce up the aging duplex, Caverhill says she was content to verbally agree to three months’ free rent in exchange for painting and other “refreshing.” She regrets she did not have a formal rental agreement with him.

It didn’t take long for the red flags to go up. By the beginning of 2012, the handywork still wasn’t done.

“He was making the renos go on and on and never let me see it,” she said.

Meanwhile, the $1,500 a month rent was never being paid.

One day, Caverhill knocked on the door, tried the lock and found it had been changed.

She says Antonacci gave her odd-looking documents that said “soveran nations embassy of mother earth.”

“When I Googled it, I thought, ‘I think I’m in trouble.’ ”

That’s when she learned Antonacci was calling himself a Freeman on the Land and didn’t intend to pay what he owed.

In fact, Antonacci billed her for work he never let her see, placed a lien on her property and declared it his embassy.

It was like war had been declared.

“Every time I went to the mailbox, I found more documents. It’s a gong show. I’m just a lady that wants to be happy and quiet.”

For two years, Caverhill found herself trying to oust her troublesome tenant, only to learn she had no contact with him, and no power to evict him, even when she served him with papers months ago.

“I was met with a bureaucratic boulder. I tried to evict him, and then tried to have the utilities turned off. No one seemed to know who these people are and the severity of the problem.

“It started as a landlord-tenant issue, but when you dig into it, there’s more information about this movement. I didn’t know about the violence.”

The man at the house said he was sorry for any hardship caused to the Caverhill.

“If any harm was done to the lady we sincerely apologize, I wasn’t aware until later on when I got in,” he said.

“I know this is her house and she can have it.”

The man also told reporters: “I’m not under your jurisdiction. We do not subject to this kind of tax. I will go to the right representative to bring peace to this situation as soon as possible.”

Antonacci had been ordered by the courts to vacate the Calgary rental property he claimed was a sovereign “embassy.”

Antonacci was also charged as Andreas Pirelli under the province’s Fair Trading Act for operating without a prepaid contractor licence connected to a separate Aug. 20 incident.

Police say the case should serve as a reminder for landlords and tenants.

“You need to make sure you’re doing the right thing. That you’re doing it through all the legal avenues and making sure you’re doing proper agreements, that gives a whole lot more authority for the different agencies to work with.”

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